This invention relates to apparatus for replacing rotating mandrels on which paper, fabric or other web is wound in a process of applying the web to, or removing it from, a succession of the mandrels. The invention is illustrated and described as applied to an unwinder, in which the web is unwound from the mandrels to be replaced.
Typically such unwinding may be for the purpose of continuously rewinding a succession of mill rolls of the web into smaller rolls for use by the consumer, or to feed a web continuously to web processing machinery.
When successive rolls are to be unwound it is desirable to be able to sever the web from an expiring roll and splice the severed end to the beginning of a new roll, all preferably automatically and without interrupting the unwinding. To avoid a shock on the web, the new roll should be rotating at a peripheral or surface speed equal to that of the expiring roll before the splice is made.